Evening News Bulletin 21 April 2025
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with .
TRANSCRIPT:
- Voters preparing to cast ballots at early voting centres from tomorrow;
- A second Signal chat scandal emerges for US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth;
- Gout Gout eliminated from the Stawell Gift event in regional Victoria.
Early voting centres will open across Australia from tomorrow morning, a fortnight before the main election day on Saturday, May 3rd.
Early voting will also be available for Australians voting overseas at embassies, consulates and high commissions.
Millions of people are expected to vote this way, with data showing more than 5.6 million voters pre-polled at the last election.
Members of the crossbench have criticised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over reports he overrode his cabinet to scupper reform around gambling ads late last year.
A landmark gambling harm inquiry chaired by late-Labor MP Peta Murphy suggested a total advertising phase-out, but almost two years later, the government has not acted on this key recommendation.
Nine newspapers have said Mr Albanese intervened to forestall the reforms which had been developed by communications minister, Michelle Rowland.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says that was the wrong choice.
“That’s just despicable and hugely disappointing that the Labor party does not have the guts to stand up to the gambling lobby and do what needs to be done. Well, with the Greens in the balance of power, we will force Labor to do what is needed. We know that it’s time to end those insidious, dangerous gambling ads that are wrecking families and destroying people’s lives.”
The Prime Minister says the Labor party is considering changes to parent visas to tackle a backlog that has seen wait times for visa applicants extend up to 50 years.
Mr Albanese says the government’s inquiry has found that between 2010 and 2022, the applications backlog more than doubled to 120,000 from around 35,000.
“The Parkinson review was one of the three reviews that took place that showed the mess that we had to clean up. The Department simply didn’t have enough staff. We are working on these issues, but we inherited an absolute mess, when we came to office.”
Meanwhile Peter Dutton has pledged a Coalition government would not cut Australia’s annual parent visa intake.
Labor increased the intake from 4,500 to 8,500 when it came to government.
Work is underway to establish Tasmania’s first Sea Country Indigenous Protected Area.
The listing will support conservation, protection and management of the area, which includes ecologically important seagrass beds.
The proposal for the Protected Area will focus around the Furneaux Islands in Bass Strait also known as Tayaritja.
Dr Beth Strain from the University of Tasmania says a management plan is being developed in a collaboration between her campus, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, and Deakin University in Victoria.
“What we’re aiming to do is basically to primarily map the seagrass beds around the Furneaux Group, because basically they’re large and extensive, probably thought to be the largest around Southern Australia, but they haven’t been extensively mapped before this.”
In the United States, the Defence Secretary has become embroiled in a second scandal over his use of the Signal app.
It’s been reported that Pete Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in a message group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell has dismissed the reports, saying in a post on X that he believes it’s a witch-hunt by the media to destroy anyone committed to Trump’s agenda.
But Democrat lawmakers have called for Mr Hegseth to be sacked, saying his actions have put lives at risk.
The Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has held its first Easter celebration since reopening to the public in December 2024, following years of reconstruction.
The gathering has brought together leaders and faithful from various Christian denominations for a shared moment of prayer, unity, and reflection beneath the newly restored Gothic vaults of the centuries-old cathedral.
Archbishop Laurent Ulrich has delivered an address to worshippers.
“Brothers and sisters, welcome to this renovated cathedral that some of you are of course discovering today, I mean discovering it by being inside it, because I imagine that many of you saw it on the 7th and 8th of December. It’s a great joy. A great celebration, a great time of peace in our hearts and, we hope, a great peace that rises in the hearts of all people to fight against the spirit of division.”
Big guns Lachlan Kennedy and Gout Gout have both been knocked out of the $40,000 Stawell Gift foot race.
Kennedy came a close second to 17-year-old Dash Muir, while Gout was beaten by title favourite John Evans.
